Embryo Selection after IVF

Embryo Selection after IVF

Many of human embryos produced after in vitro fertilization carry abnormal chromosomes. Placing a chromosomally normal embryo (s) into a normal uterus has a very high chance of achieving a pregnancy. Your eggs have been retrieved and the mature eggs were fertilized. Now You and your reproductive endocrinologist are faced with the critical task of how many and which embryo to transfer to the uterus or which ones to freeze.

Why do we Need Embryo Selection?

Selection of the most appropriate embryo(s) for transfer aim at i. Maximizing the chance for pregnancy and ii. Minimizing the risk of twins and other multiple pregnancies. Casual inspection of the embryo does not yield accurate information about its chromosome makeup. One can follow an indiscriminate approach where all embryos are transferred. The problem is this approach yields high unacceptable multiple pregnancy rates. On the other hand one can transfer one embryo at a time. This is a much safer approach in terms of markedly minimizing twin rates but may lower the chance for getting pregnant. In addition it also require a robust freezing program so that frozen embryos can survive thawing. Right now in The US the survival of frozen embryos exceed 95% and the chance for pregnancy with a thawed embryo is approximately equal to a fresh embryo.

Measure of Success: time to conceive or cumulative chance for pregnancy?

One major issue related to fertility treatment especially IVF is how to measure success? specifically consider this question: if you have three embryos and decided to transfer them one at a time and got pregnant after the third transfer with a singleton, how does that compare to transferring all embryos in the fresh cycle and getting pregnant in twins? before answering it is important to know that twin gestation is associated with higher risk for pre-term delivery, ICU admissions and long term consequences for the babies.

In other words should you consider success as pregnancy taking place after one retrieval (cumulative chance from fresh and frozen embryos) or pregnancy taking place in the fresh cycle only (fresh embryos)? In other words would you like to shorten the time to conceive at the expense of higher risk for multiple pregnancy? Within reason, this is a question for you and your reproductive endocrinologist to answer based on your preferences and his practice

You have a Voice: How should you use your embryos after IVF?

You need to have a voice in the number of embryos transferred to your uterus. Although your fertility specialist can discuss numbers and chances and other technical details as well as long term risks for multiple pregnancy, there are questions that cannot be answered by anyone but you.

How do you feel about twins? triplets and quads?

Would you accept fetal reduction (removal of one or more sacs from the uterus and leaving only one or two)?

Do you have the social support system to take care of twins?

For these and many other reasons your input in the number of embryos to transfer is paramount.

Methods of Embryo Selection after IVF

Embryo Morphology and Female Age

Age is, by far, the strongest predictor of the health of the embryos. Younger women produce more chromosomally normal embryos than older women. An embryo from a woman at age 30 commonly implants 40% of the time as opposed to 5% or less in a woman age 40. For any given cohort, embryos are graded based on specific morphological criteria from the best looking to the worst. These criteria are technical and followed by all embryologists. Embryos are prioritized for transfer based on their shape. Morphology, however is may be 50 to 60% predictive of pregnancy, far from ideal. The combined use of morphology of embryos, stage of development (day 3 or blastocyst) and age is the standard selection method for which embryo is transferred first and how many. This method has the advantage of being sheep, quick and non-invasive. All other methods must prove superior to morphology + age before adoption.

Extended Culture to Blastocyst Stage (Day 5 Embryo)

Keeping day 3 embryos in culture may give these embryos may time to develop to blastocysts. Presumably, the better embryos progress to blastocysts or do so faster than less healthy embryos, thus they are preferentially selected for transfer.

Time Lapse Imaging of Embryos

time lapse embryo imaging-normal embryo division

Embryos are placed in a specific incubator in a specific plate and is observed at predetermined time

PGS (Embryo Chromosome testing)

New forms of PGS (performing biopsy at the blastocyst stage) and more accurate platforms for analyzing the biopsied cells are available. However, the concept that better selection will lead to improved IVF results is far from certain.

It success of an IVF cycle is measured after transfer of fresh then frozen embryos till pregnancy ensues (cumulative success) ad patients are will to be patient for 1-2 more months, then any form of embryo selection, PGS or otherwise, will not improve the live birth rates. Moreover, PGS can be harmeful as it may misdiagnose the health of the embryos (see this article on PGS for details). PGS increases the expense of treatment $4000 to 6000

Embryo selection is maybe be able to improve the time to pregnancy, if embryos with the highest implantation potential are transferred first.

Based on the available evidence, judicious selection of embryos based on patient age, morphology and the use of extended culture to blastocysts are the standard of care in embryo selection after IVF. Two additional factors to consider is how robust is the freezing program of that specific lab (generally excellent all over the US) and the acceptability of fetal reduction by the couple. Liberal use of single embryo transfer when appropriate should be strongly considered. ‘New’ ideas should be subjected to rigorous scientific evaluations ‘fertility clinical trials’ before they are ready for routine use. Thus far, based on published evidence, embryo time lapse imaging and PGS should remain investigational.

Summary

Article Name

Embryo Selection after IVF

Description

Female age and morphology are still the standard of care for Embryo Selection after IVF. There is no evidence currently that PGS (chromosomal analysis of embryos) or time lapse embryo photography improves the pregnancy rates after IVF.

Dr. Amr Azim

Amr Azim, MD, FACOG is a reproductive endocrinologist and a fertility specialist with special training in treating simple and complex fertility problems. His areas of expertise are assisted reproduction and preservation of fertility